Healing Ourselves with the Earth

Healing Ourselves with the Earth

Have you ever lost yourself in a tree? At our friend’s property in Rhode Island off Narragansett Bay (New England’s largest estuary), there is a Copper Beech that my artist husband has drawn. It has a royal canopy of burgundy and silver, fanning out like a giant mushroom over a stalk of trunks that sink into its base like a huge bunch of celery.

I practiced yoga facing this tree. We estimate the tree was planted around 1926, the year Queen Elizabeth was born, Francisco Franco became General of Spain and the NBC Radio Network opened with 24 stations. I kept my eyes on the tree and listened as I moved and then meditated. An interplay of images and thoughts streamed through my mind, and I felt the tree sharing wisdom with me.

Our relationship with nature is reciprocal: “As we work to heal the Earth, the Earth heals us,” says 92-year-old ecologist and Buddhist teacher Joanna Macy. She encourages us to see our beautiful planet not as separate from us but as our larger living body. 

So don’t wait! Get outside this summer and invite nature into your life. You may be surprised when nature answers you back.
~ Anne

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